An Australian truck driver and convicted armed robber attended top-level military security meetings after posing as an army officer, it was reported today. Peter Bennett began what the Age newspaper described as his "self-appointed military career" in September 2005. The 54-year-old wore formal military dress - including decorations for supposed service in Vietnam and elsewhere - to gatecrash a formal dinner at an air force base in Melbourne. There, he met senior figures including the head of Australia's air force, Air Vice Marshal Geoffrey Shepherd. The Age pictured Bennett, who has pleaded guilty to impersonating a public official, dressed in a white jacket, bow tie and red cummerbund as he posed for a photograph with Mr Shepherd. After managing to obtain an Australian defence forces identity card, he attended a series of meetings of Operation Acolyte, which planned security for last year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.... http://www.guardian.co.uk

AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and competing phone companies will find out this month whether they can bid for the biggest U.S. government communications contract ever or get shut out of most federal work for a decade. Carriers must win the right to bid on projects valued at more than $20 billion over 10 years, for work ranging from Internet-based telephone and video services to data-network security upgrades. As many as 135 agencies will pick providers from the list, limiting work for companies that are left out. ``This is high-stakes procurement,'' said Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president at FedSources, a McLean, Virginia-based research group that tracks government contracts. ``It could be quite a hurt for some of these teams if they were to not win.'' ...http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=arT_VB43qrEU&refer=exclusive

Democratic-backed legislation to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq cleared an initial Senate hurdle Wednesday, but Republicans confidently predicted they had the votes to defeat it.Bush backed them up with a veto threat. The legislation, calling for combat troops to return home over the next 12 months, "would hobble American commanders in the field and substantially endanger America's strategic objective of a unified federal democratic Iraq," the White House said in a written statement.The strong veto message underscored the intensifying struggle between the administration and the new Democratic-controlled Congress, which is determined to end U.S. participation in a war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,100 Americans and cost more than $300 billion.Democrats in the House and Senate are advancing different bills calling for the withdrawal of troops, and Bush has threatened to veto both....http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070314/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq_60;_ylt=ArPUHWHoSwLjFAbvGY9XcH9X6GMA

Few Americans believe their federal government should become engaged in "regime change" operations, according to a poll by the New York Times and CBS News. Only 15 per cent of respondents believe the United States should try to change a dictatorship to a democracy where it can, down 12 points since April 2004. In his January 2005 inauguration speech, U.S. president George W. Bush said: "It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." In October 2006, Bush justified his decision to launch the coalition effort in Iraq, declaring, "This country of ours must take threats seriously before they fully materialize. Saddam Hussein was a threat; the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power....http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/15043

A long-awaited reunion of three college friends turned tragic when a massive avalanche killed two of them during a backcountry skiing trip in the Colorado mountains, family members said.Alexis Michel Dodin, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Simon Martin Ozanne of Maplewood, New Jersey, were killed Tuesday afternoon when the category-5 avalanche — the most dangerous kind — crashed down on them about five miles (eight kilometers) southeast of Aspen, authorities said Wednesday. The Pitkin County coroner said both men suffocated after being buried by snow.Their friend Jason Luck, 33, from the Denver suburb of Aurora, survived and called for help....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,258825,00.html

The US military has admitted for the first time that some of the violence in Iraq can be described as constituting a civil war.In a newly negative assessment of the war to date, a quarterly Pentagon report says that the period from October to December was the most violent three-month period since 2003.Attacks and casualties suffered by coalition and Iraqi forces and civilians were higher than any other similar time span, the report said.Members of the Bush administration have been loath to say that the US military is struggling to quell a civil war, and the report agreed that the term does not capture the complex situation there....http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/US-admits-Iraq-violence-is-civil-war/2007/03/15/1173722604881.html